Chapter 93 93
Annabeth's POV:
I woke up to the sound of Kaelen's heartbeat.
Not next to me, I mean. Inside me. Or like, through me? It's hard to explain. One second I was asleep and the next I was awake because I could feel his heart starting to beat faster, pulling me up from whatever dream I'd been having. The bond was... different. Way more intense than before. Every breath he took, I felt it in my own lungs. Every shift of his body against mine, I knew it before it happened.
His arm was draped over my waist, heavy and warm. My back pressed against his chest, his face buried in my hair. We were tangled together in the narrow bed like two people who'd fallen asleep mid-conversation and just never separated.
I lay there for a minute, processing.
Last night had happened. Really happened. The sex, yeah, but also the other thing. The bond completing. I could feel Kaelen in my head now, not his thoughts exactly, more like his... presence. A second heartbeat layered over mine. A warmth in my chest that wasn't just body heat.
He was waking up. I felt it before he moved, this gradual shift from sleep to consciousness that I experienced as clearly as my own. His breathing changed, his heart picked up, and then his arm tightened around my waist.
"Hey." His voice was rough with sleep, muffled against my hair.
"Hey yourself."
"What time is it?"
I looked at the window. The light coming through was pale gray, early morning. "Maybe six? Seven?"
"Too early." He pulled me closer, his nose finding that spot behind my ear. "Go back to sleep."
"I can't. You woke me up."
"I didn't do anything."
"Your heartbeat did. It got faster and it dragged me up."
He was quiet for a second, processing that. Through the bond I felt his confusion turn to understanding turn to something like wonder.
"So you felt that," he said. "The waking up."
"I felt everything. I still feel everything. It's... a lot."
"Good a lot or bad a lot?"
"Just... a lot." I turned in his arms so we were facing each other, our faces close on the pillow. His eyes were that blue-green color again, the gold from last night faded back to normal. "I can feel you breathing. Not hear it, feel it. Like your lungs are connected to mine somehow."
He reached up and brushed hair away from my face. I felt his fingertips on my skin and also his awareness of touching me, this doubled sensation that made my breath catch.
"It's supposed to get easier," he said. "We'll learn to filter, put up walls when we need to. But for now it's going to be..."
"Overwhelming?"
"I was gonna say intense but yeah, overwhelming works too."
I smiled. Couldn't help it. He smiled back and I felt his happiness through the bond, warm and bright, mixing with my own until I couldn't tell whose emotions were whose.
"This is weird," I said.
"Extremely weird."
"But also kind of amazing?"
"Yeah." He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, soft, barely there. "Kind of amazing."
We lay there for a few minutes, not talking, just existing in this new thing we'd made. His hand traced patterns on my back, absent and soothing, and I let myself sink into the feeling of being held. Of being known. Not just physically but all the way down to whatever I was underneath the skin and bones.
Then something shifted. I felt nervousness creeping up my spine, this tight anxious feeling about getting up and facing everyone. Marcus knowing. Marlen knowing. Having to act normal when nothing was normal.
And then, before I could spiral, warmth. Calm. Pouring through the bond from Kaelen like he'd opened a faucet. Not his emotions bleeding into mine by accident, this was deliberate. He was sending me reassurance on purpose.
"Did you just..." I stared at him.
"Felt you getting anxious." He shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Figured I'd try. Did it work?"
"Yeah. That's... that's actually really useful."
"See? Bond has perks." He sat up slowly, the covers falling away from his chest, and I watched the muscles in his back shift as he stretched. "We should probably get up though. Marcus is gonna be back at some point. And my siblings are upstairs."
"What do we tell them?"
"Nothing? They'll figure it out. Marlen already knew, she basically orchestrated the whole thing. And Marcus will take one look at us and just... know. Because he's Marcus."
"That's not weird to you? My dad knowing we..."
"Incredibly weird. But unavoidable." He looked back at me over his shoulder. "You okay?"
Through the bond, I felt him sensing my nervousness again. And again, that deliberate wave of calm.
"Stop that," I said, but I was smiling.
"Stop what?"
"Being all supportive and sweet. It's annoying."
He laughed and leaned down to kiss me, quick and soft. "Get dressed. We'll face the firing squad together."
The kitchen smelled like coffee when we finally emerged. My hair was still wet from the world's fastest shower, and I was pretty sure I had a hickey on my collarbone that my t-shirt didn't quite cover. Whatever. Nothing I could do about it now.
Marcus was at the table.
Of course he was. Sitting there with a mug in front of him, looking like he'd been waiting for hours. He didn't say anything when we walked in. Just looked. Once. This long, measuring look that took in everything: Kaelen behind me, my wet hair, the fact that we'd clearly come from the same direction.
The silence was awful.
I went to the coffee maker. Poured myself a cup. My hands were steady, which felt like an accomplishment. Kaelen moved around me to grab his own mug, our bodies navigating the small kitchen without bumping into each other, like we'd been doing it for years.
Marcus drank his coffee. I drank mine. Nobody spoke.
Then footsteps on the stairs.
Marlen appeared in the doorway, hair in a messy bun, wearing pajamas that were too big for her. She stopped when she saw all of us, her eyes flicking from Marcus to Kaelen to me. Something crossed her face. Not quite approval, but not disapproval either.
"So it happened," she said flatly. Then she rolled her eyes and walked past us to the fridge. "Finally. The tension was getting unbearable."
"Marlen," Kaelen started.
"What? I'm not judging. I'm relieved. Maybe now you two will stop looking at each other like you're dying of thirst in a desert." She poured herself orange juice. "Congratulations on the bond thing, I guess. It's supposed to be a big deal."
More footsteps. Heavier this time. Lucian stumbled into the kitchen looking half-dead, his hair sticking up in seventeen different directions.
"Is there food?" He didn't look at anyone, just made a beeline for the cereal cabinet. "I'm starving. Also my phone died last night because I couldn't charge it. The generator kept making this weird humming noise, like really loud, and then it would stop, and then start again. Super annoying. Couldn't sleep."
Marlen choked on her juice.
I felt my face go hot. The generator. Right. That hadn't been the generator.
"Probably needs maintenance," Marcus said, his voice completely flat. "I'll look at it later."
"Whatever. Just fix it before tonight because I need my phone charged." Lucian grabbed the cereal box and a bowl. "Why is everyone being weird? You're all standing around looking at each other like something happened."
"Nothing happened," Kaelen said.
"Okay, that's definitely a lie because you're doing your lying face, but I don't care enough to investigate." He poured cereal, added milk, grabbed a spoon. "I'll be in the living room. Being normal. Unlike all of you."
He shuffled out and Marlen followed him. A few seconds later, the TV turned on.
Marcus waited until the sound of cartoons filled the silence. Then he set down his mug.
"My contact had information," he said. "It's not good."
The warmth drained out of the room. I felt Kaelen's emotions shift through the bond, that lazy morning happiness replaced by something sharper.
"What kind of information?" Kaelen asked.
"The Order knows we're in this area. They're running reconnaissance teams, searching systematically. Fifty mile radius, closing in." Marcus's jaw tightened. "It's a matter of days. Maybe a week if we're lucky."
Days. A week. We'd had one night. One perfect night. And now this.
"So we run again," I said. My voice came out tired. "Find somewhere else."
"Where?" Kaelen's voice had an edge. "We've been running for five years. Every place is compromised sooner or later. There's nowhere left."
Marcus didn't answer immediately. He was looking at us, at me and Kaelen standing close together, and something in his expression shifted.
"Before we discuss options," he said slowly, "we need to talk about what the completed bond means. Tactically."
I glanced at Kaelen. Through the bond I felt his confusion matching mine.
"There are advantages," Marcus continued. "You're both stronger now. Annabeth, you'll be able to channel some of Kaelen's power, use it to amplify your own abilities. In combat, you'll synchronize instinctively. Know where the other is, what they're about to do, without communicating."
"That sounds... good," I said.
"It is good." Marcus paused. "But there's a cost."
The way he said it made my stomach drop.
"The bond works both ways. You feel everything the other feels. Emotions, sensations..." He looked at Kaelen. "Pain."
Oh.
"If one of you is hurt," Marcus said, "the other feels it. If one of you is captured..." He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't have to.
I thought about what that meant. Really thought about it. If they took Kaelen and tortured him, I would feel every second of it. And if they took me...
Through the bond, I felt something slam shut. Kaelen's emotions going dark and hard, this cold determined thing that didn't match his face at all.
"That's not going to happen," he said. His voice was calm. Too calm.
"Kaelen—"
"It's not going to happen." He looked at Marcus, then at me. "I won't let it."